An El Dorado of Clean Energy: Millimeter Wave Geothermal Drilling with Quaise Energy

Quaise Energy is leveraging a high power source originally intended for fusion energy - the gyrotron - for advanced geothermal drilling applications. Quaise's millimeter wave drilling rig would essentially vaporize ultrahard rock down to previously unexplored depths to tap into "an El Dorado of clean energy".

-----

Quaise Energy will overcome technical limitations to deep geothermal drilling by replacing mechanical methods with a Millimeter Wave (MMW) directed energy technology to melt and vaporize rocks for removal. This approach could increase drilling speed by 10 times or more, reducing costs while reaching higher temperatures and greater depths than those achievable with the best current and proposed mechanical technologies. Project R&D will include benchtop testing as well as larger scale demonstrations of directed MMW drilling at unprecedented borehole lengths and power levels. A detailed modeling and simulations campaign carried out with the experimental work will provide the basis for the design of larger, commercial-scale systems.